READ THIS FIRST

To all you angry little bees, who suddenly forgot the stunt I pulled so many years ago, I find myself in the position to repeat... Read this till the end. Talk with you guys in the author note at the end. ;P

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THE SPAWNS

Dusk Was Smiling Down

Epilogue—Cole

© DarknessAndLight

I fidgeted with the collar of my button up shirt.

It was safe to say that the last place I wanted to be right now was at this funeral.

Most of the gathering was taking place outside and it was where most people were hanging around right now, but the heat of the summer just made wearing this suit unbearable.

I didn't want to be here. I didn't want to be at this stupid funeral.

I was seeing mostly my parents' friends right now, all familiar faces. Before I could ignore everyone and go hide inside in front of the AC, my aunt Catherine caught me.

"How you holding up?" she asked hand on my shoulder, sad expression on her face.

"I'm absolutely fine," I automatically answered.

"It's okay to cry. It's okay to be sad."

I frowned. "I'm... fine."

She nodded, like she didn't believe me. "Alright."

Next person to catch me was my father. There was no way I could ignore him.

With his blotchy eyes, he went straight to hug me and wouldn't let me go. "Oh god. Why did God have to take her away from us, right in her prime?"

I managed the entangle myself from my father's death grip. "Dad, seriously, she was like a freaking hundred years old. The true miracle was for her to not have died ten years ago. You realize that she was basically on life support. Some humans don't have as good of medical treatments as she did."

He rubbed a hand on his eyes. "Miss Puss was the light of my life. How are you gonna feel when that grey dust ball of yours dies?"

I rolled my eyes. I shouldn't be making fun of him, this was a big deal for him. But I couldn't help it. It wasn't like it was a surprise. "One thing's for sure, I don't plan on paying the value of a house on vet bills, that I can assure you."

"How can you put a price on life?"

I sighed, shaking my head. "I pity my mother for being in love with a man that always loved a cat more than her."

"My love for Miss Puss was always pure."

"Unlike your love for my Mum that's absolutely inappropriate?" I asked, a little incredulous.

"I'm not seeing a lot of comforting right now."

"Dad, your cat was almost thirty years old. It was a true medical miracle that she lasted that long. She was probably already rotting from the inside."

"You're a bad son."

I rolled my eyes. I loved my Dad, but I had enough of him for now. "Whatever. My deepest condolences," I told him and left him to go cry in someone else's arms.

My Mum was leaning against a tree, enjoying its shade a few feet away, so I went to see her.

"Hey Mum..."

"I win," she said, grinning, not looking my way before taking a sip from her drink—booze I could smell.

Huh? "What?"

"After years, that old puss finally kicked the bucket. I beat her," she said quietly, sounding like a maniac.

"Mum..."

She kept going, ignoring my traumatized face. "You have no idea how difficult it is for me to not dance victoriously around her rotting carcass."

Did I seriously thought I was going to have normal interactions with my parents today? I was at a cat funeral for god's sakes? "You're seriously deranged," I told her.

She finally looked at m with her creepy grin. "Thank you. Now, can you go check on your brother?"

"Sure..."

I looked around trying to spot the youngest attendee to this excuse for a family reunion. Sure, this was a funeral but this was mostly just my parents' excuse to gather their old gang and hang around for a day.

Finally, I could see my little brother William running around, trying to catch insects on the ground.

I went up to him and crouched to his level. "Hey, what's up?"

"COLE!" he said happily and went to give me a hug. "I got a secret and a present..." he whispered in my ears, an arm still around my neck. The other was reaching in my pocket.

I frowned confused. "Okay..."

"They're both in your pocket now," he told me with a grin and ran away.

I stood up again and reached into my pocket. I felt something slimy. I looked down. I had a dead frog in my hand. "What the fuck?" What was I supposed to do with that? Bury it? Throw it in the trash? Just drop it on the ground? I went to a patch where the grass was a little sparse and tried to dig a hole with my shoe, before putting the frog in there and burying it, but I was doing it like super quickly because I didn't want to have to keep the gross thing in my hand.

When I was done, I finally went inside to wash my hands.

Jayden and Maika decided to show up at this very convenient time. "What's up?" Jay asked me.

"William just put a dead frog in my pocket," I told them, kinda pissed. Did my parents know their five years old son was going around putting dead amphibians in people's pockets? Was I going to have to raise him on top of having had to raise myself?

Jayden snorted a laugh. "What?"

"He put a fugging dead frog in my pocket. My brother is a psychopath."

"Is that surprising?" Maika asked.

"Good god, my whole family is really fugging insane."

"So, how life?" Jayden asked, amused, clearly trying to change the subject.

"Oh you know, not too bad considering my best friends didn't even bother telling me they got engaged," I told them, deadpan. Their panicked expression? Priceless. I grinned at them, innocently. "What?"

"Where did you hear that?" Jayden asked, looking around.

"Seriously? You sport that big ass rock," I started to say to Maika pointing at her hand, "and you expect people not to notice?"

"We didn't think this was the best time to tell anyone," Maika answered.

I ignored her comment. "I just think I should have been called the second it happened."

"You already know I was going to ask her," Jay whined.

"Ah, but I didn't know you already had!"

He'd told me a couple of months ago, that he was planning on asking our best friend to marry him. I wasn't surprised. I was surprised things hadn't been moving faster between them. They were still as head over heels as they'd been the first summer they'd started to date. Sharing an apartment with these two during my college years had been torture.

But now we were all on our own. I had my own place in Brooklyn. As a human rights defendant, I was trying to make adoption accessible for more people, so gay couples could stop being rejected, not just here but elsewhere in the world. I was trying to get more laws to protect children. I was trying to help make equality the norm and not the exception. I was trying to help to leave this earth a little better place than it was.

Maika and Jayden were living together in Boston in a big condo. Maika was a web designer now and Jay was about to start a new exhibition with his sculptures.

All in all, we had a nice future ahead of us.

Jayden was pouting now. How amusing? "Come on, I did it last night! It was our anniversary."

"It's okay, I'm not mad, I'm just disappointed," I told them. Both of them groaned in unison. I laughed.

"Gosh, you're melodramatic. That's what happens when you don't get laid," Mai snapped.

I glared at my friend.

"Sorry. We're sorry, we're here getting engaged while you still haven't popped your cherry. We're really bad best friends," Jay added sheepishly.

"We're sorry we didn't follow through our virgin pack," Maika added.

They were waiting for something now. I felt like messing with them. "It's fine guys, I'm not a virgin anymore, anyway," I told them, grabbing a beer from the fridge.

Don't fidget, don't look guilty. Don't give anything away.

"Wait a second," Mai grabbed my arm, "What?"

"You guys are totally off the hook, it's fine," I told them before decapsulating my beer and taking a gulp.

"How could you have sex and not tell us?"

I looked at them like, what, pointing at the ring. Like I was the worst with the secrets. "Seriously? And it's nothing really..."

Jayden suddenly looked like someone had slapped him. "Wait... holy... BELLY! Get your deflowered self right here, right now," he yelled.

I covered my face in shame, shaking my head.

Who was being dramatic now?

I didn't look at Beth when she walked up to us. "Jeez, could you be a little louder please?" she mumbled.

"Cole," she nodded my way as a greeting, coldly.

"Lilibeth," I did the same.

"You slept with Cole?" Jay pressed, ignoring our pathetic greetings.

Beth did a little double take. "What?"

"He's not a virgin anymore! So clearly you aren't either," he explained.

She sighed, sounding annoyed. "That's actually the first I'm hearing of this. I did not have sex with Coleridge."

"Huh?" Maika and Jayden looked absolutely confused.

"When would've we even had sex? I'm living in Berlin," she pressed.

"I'm getting a headache here. What the fuckidifuck is going on?" Jay whined.

"What's going on is that you've just told me that Cole is not a virgin anymore, while I clearly still am, so thanks for that, I really needed that kind of information. Good day to you all."

Cold as ice.

"No, no, no, wait a second, you guys are lying to us. NIKKI! NIKKI!" Jayden started to shout, grabbing the first passerby.

Nikki stopped, indulging him. "Whaaaaaaaaaat?"

"Have these two been banging?" he asked, pointing between us.

She gave the mother of snorts. "Oh yeah sure, in the middle of Lili's concerto here and ballet routine there and crazy fuckload of school work and the dance classes she teaches kids she totally has time to go nail Coleridge Torres all the way to Butt-Fuck Brooklyn. You're lucky to have her here for more than fifteen minutes."

"What?" Again, Maika and Jayden were two lost puppies.

I was finally having fun today.

"I barely have time to see her, you think she has time to have clandestine meetings with Cole in his stupid studio? You two are dumbasses," she said, grabbing a beer from the fridge too.

"You're not lying?" Jay asked me and Beth.

"No," we both answered.

"You didn't sleep together,"

"No." Both of us again.

"Then who the hell did you sleep with?" Maika asked, incredulous.

"And once again, that is my cue to leave, good day to you all," Beth said and hurried away.

"What about Belly? What were you thinking Cole?" Jay asked when his sister was far away enough.

I tried to keep from laughing. It was proving to be difficult. "Beth an I both agreed that we needed to figure ourselves out before we should ever date, so that's what we're doing. We're living our lives, and in a couple of years, when we're settled, maybe we'll try being together. Maybe not. Our future doesn't have to be set in stone."

"But... but, you guys love each other," Maika tried to reason with me.

I gave her a shrug. "That doesn't mean we're not allowed to have a life of our own."

I could see how worked up they were getting. This was gold.

"How could you lose your virginity to anyone but Lilibeth. Seriously, how? How could you waste your first time like that?" Maika asked.

I rolled my eyes and took another gulp of beer. "You guys have absolutely no right to say anything about first times. Your first time was in a car on your way to dinner because Maika couldn't keep her hands to herself and you two have zero self control."

"We totally have self control."

"No, you really really don't."

"He's right. We really don't, Mai."

"You guys are about to give Cole's parents a run for their money," Nikki said, still standing there, playing with her phone, beer still in hand.

"Please, don't compare them together, that's just wrong on so many levels," I whined.

"I'll do you one worse, foursome, your mom, your dad, Jay—"

I covered Nikki's mouth with my hand before she could finish that sentence. "Don't you dare say shit like that." She licked my palm, which made me take my hand off her mouth reaaaaal fast. Ugh. "Nikki Grayson, you are a vile, vile, woman," I told her, wiping my hand on my pants.

"Oh my god, oh my god, no, don't tell me you two slept together?" Jay suddenly screeched.

Nikki threw her hands in the air. "Good god, how can you be so clueless? Bye you idiotic spawn," she said and walked away.

"She didn't deny it! SHE DIDN'T DENY IT!" Jayden yelled.

I just winked at him and left.

A lot of people were inside now, it had started to rain a little. My parents' place was crowded. I chatted with people, catching up with them. I grabbed some food, ate a little. Coming here for the weekend just for the funeral had been a feat in organisation. My work kept me busy all the time and I was far from my parents and my hometown.

After a little while, I got fed up of all the crowd and went up to where my room used to me, looking down at the people chatting together.

I was standing against a library, drink in hand, on my own, when Lilibeth finally came to stand beside me. Her shoulder was slightly brushing against my arm. All that mattered in the world right now was that point of contact.

"You come here often?" Beth asked me, not looking my way.

"Depends. You from around here?" I said.

"I am, but I've been away for a while."

"Have you?"

Lilibeth pressed her chin on my arm, just under my shoulder, looking up at me with a cheeky grin.

I looked around making sure no one was looking at us and pressed a chaste kiss to her lips. I leaned in and whispered in her ear, "You forgot your earrings at my place."

"Dammit," she mumbled in a laugh.

"We really played these fools," I told her, giving a little bump to her shoulder with mine.

She kept smiling. "We really did."

I pressed a hand to my almost hurt heart. "You seriously had me convinced for a second."

"I'm growing up to be quite the skilled liar," she admitted. "Did you buy your plane ticket?" she asked.

I nodded. "Yep, I'm flying off on Friday."

"Friday? What am I going to do in Seychelles for two days all alone?"

"I suggest stretching, drinking a lot of water in advance and maybe get out in the sun a little because I don't plan on letting you out for two weeks."

She bopped my nose with her finger. "Naughty, naughty."

"Hey guuuuuuuys," we jumped away from each other, but it was fortunately just Nikki.

"Hey Nikki," we said together.

"You guys are evil, lying to your bestfriends like that," she told us.

"You're my bestfriend, I'm not lying to you," Beth told her. Nikki was the only one that knew about us. It would have been difficult to hide it when Nikki and Beth lived together cramped in the same little apartment. Beth never could have hidden me. It was easier when Beth came to my place. We almost got caught only once by Jayden who'd dropped by unexpectedly. Beth had hidden in my shower for an hour. Otherwise, no one had ever been close to catching us.

"Also, as long as those idiots are betting on when we'll end up together, there's no way we're going to make it easy on them. They want to bet on our sex lives? Fine, they'll never know anything," I added.

That stupid bet of theirs, about when we'd get together really got on our nerves. We weren't about to make it easy for them. They were all pressing us about our relationship. But this was ours, and not theirs.

"You guys are being petty."

"No, they're actually the ones who are being inconsiderate," Beth answered.

Nikki shook her head at us. "I just can't wait to see when you're going to tell everyone that you're moving in together, that you've been dating for years and that you're expecting your second child together."

"Please, we'll move in together before we have children," Beth answered casually. That made me feel all warm in my chest.

"I'd much rather surprise everyone with something along the lines of, oh, we're already married actually," I replied, teasingly.

"Eloping? Like your parents?" Nikki asked.

I looked away from Beth, at her, "Only smart thing they did."

Nikki rolled her eyes at us. She did that often. "Idiots, the both of you."

We grinned and answered together, "thank you."

"You really are a match made in heaven," she mumbled, going back downstairs.

We waved after her, as she left us alone again.

"I don't think I've mentioned how good you looked yet," I whispered to Beth, still standing side by side with her.

She smiled back at me, knowingly. I'd bought her the dress she was wearing a couple of years ago for an audition in Paris. "It's my lucky dress," she said.

She had sparks in her eyes. I wasn't sure if I was forgetting how to breathe or breathing too much. This woman always did strange things to me.

"We should probably go back downstairs... before people start to notice..." Beth trailed, her thumbs brushing up and down against my hand.

I looked down at our hands, moving mine a little, intertwining our fingers together. "Probably..."

Beth pressed a kiss to my shoulder and dragged me by the hand, going for the stairs. "Come on, pretty boy."

I laughed and followed her, dropping her hand so we wouldn't get caught.

That had been smart because Beth's parents caught us as we reached the last step of the stairs. "Aw, you two look adorable together," her dad said.

"Cut it out Papa," Beth answered, narrowing her eyes at him.

"Pumpkin, come look at our daughter and our future son-in-law," he added teasingly to his wife.

Beth stuck her tongue out like a petulant child. She was adorable. "Sorry Papa, I have no interest in dating a Torres. Look at where we are right now. They're clearly deranged."

No arguing with that. There were ten feet prints of Miss Puss hanging on the walls. My father had issues.

"And our only true loves are our cats, that's just facts," I added.

"You gotta give it to Miss Puss, that cat was a fighter," Beth's mom said.

"Yeah, but sometimes you have to know when to quit," I replied.

Beth's parents were just smiling at us now. It felt like the longer I was standing beside Beth, the quicker they'd figure everything out.

Fortunately, the next thing Lexi said to Beth was, "We're heading out now, were you going to stay a little longer?"

"Yeah, I think I want to spend some time with Jay and Mai," she agreed.

She smiled at her daughter. "That's good, I know your brother misses you."

Beth rolled her eyes. "Well Mama, he could fly over more often, I'm a busy bee!"

"That you are darling," her mother said with a smile and kissed her temple. Her father went to hug her after. They both hugged me too after. Those Eaton huggers. 

"You kids have fun," her Dad said.

"Thanks," we said together and waved at them good bye.

"You think they know?" I asked when they were out the door.

"I don't know... They know things you know," she said. I laughed at her. "So..." she trailed.

"So?"

"Let's go make out in a closet?"

I burst into laughter. I wanted to stroke her hair and hug her. "Tempting, but we should actually go talk with your brother."

She scrunched her nose. "Very unfortunate."

I laughed again. "You're adorable."

She grinned. "Shut your cute mouth."

"You have a cute mouth," I grinned back, taking a step closer.

"Cut it out. There are people," she hissed.

There were a thousand things I wanted to say. Gosh, she was just so beautiful and adorable and sexy and everything in between.

So I just smiled down at her and said, "Come on Kitten."

We found our friends in the kitchen. "You guys want to get out of here and get a beer? Sure, Maika can't drink, since she's pregnant, but she can tag along too," I asked them.

They did a violent double take.

"I'm not pregnant," Maika automatically answered, defensively. Yeah right.

"You're totally pregnant," I said.

"She's totally pregnant," Beth agreed.

Jay glared at us, grabbing us both by an arm. "Who told you guys that?"

I shrugged. "We can tell."

"Totally obvious," Beth nodded.

"Like the fact that you two are lying liars and you're totally in love and you have clandestine meetings?" Maika said, pointing at us, her eyes narrowed.

I shook my head. "We don't."

"Yeah, we don't have time for such childish games," Beth agreed.

"But you guys totally have time to get knocked up," I added.

"I'm not pregnant," Maika hissed again.

I ignored her. "You totally are."

"She totally is. That's why they haven't set a date for their wedding yet. She 'bout to get biiiiiig," Beth added, making a big belly gesture with her hands.

"We should bet on it," I offered.

Beth agreed, "We should."

"You two are mean."

Beth and I both grinned and answered, "thanks."

Jayden leaned against Maika, his head going down towards her like he was about to tell her a secret. "This is eerie."

"Tell me about it," she agreed.

"Maika might be pregnant, but you two are totally hiding something from us," he said.

"We're not," I automatically replied.

"Definitely not," Beth said, "but Maika is clearly pregnant."

"Clearly," I nodded.

"Beer?" Beth offered again, looking at our friends.

"Let's take your car. Maika can drive, since she won't be drinking because she's pregnant," I said.

Jay and Mai just gave up at that point because they realized, they weren't going to win the argument here. And they weren't exactly denying it anyway. Those two were predictable.

When we were all sitting in the car, Jayden asked, behind the wheel, "Hey, you guys remember when we had that car accident?"

"And Cole broke his leg and was in a cast all summer long," Beth said, sitting beside me in the back.

"Worst summer ever," I mumbled. I remembered that morning. Jayden had been distracted because whatever he believed, he couldn't run on no sleep. A truck in the other lane had swerve in ours a little because of the strong winds, so Jay had given a sharp turn of the wheel and we had hit a guard rail. The car had been pretty damaged. Everyone had been fine though, except me because I was the only idiot wearing my seat belt all wrong, and my leg had squeezed between the seat and the crushed door.

"Best summer," Maika grinned in the front.

"Yeah, because you two started to play doctors together," I reminded her.

"I don't know why you're complaining, you two were playing doctor too," she said, talking to me and Beth.

"If by playing doctor you mean that was actually helping Cole while he was hurt, yeah sure," Beth replied.

Jay snorted. "Helping."

She slapped her brother's arm. "Yeah, helping."

"Guys, she was a baby," I defended her and me.

That might have been the wrong thing to say. Beth was glaring at me a little. "A baby?"

I grinned sheepishly. "Yeah, a baby."

Beth pouted, crossing her arms over her chest. "Well, you kissed that baby."

I repressed a snorted chuckle. "You kissed me first, I just kissed you back."

"Can't you guys just date already? We basically all had to pick new dates for our bet because all the other ones already passed," Mai whined.

"Sorry, not gonna happen. I don't plan on starting to date this girl."

"You guys don't play fair," Jay added, turning his head quick to look at us.

I hit his seat. "Just look in front and drive you dweeb. You should have learned this by now. Why are we even letting him drive?"

"That's true," Mai agreed, "he shouldn't be in charge of anything that demands to be observant."

"Hey, I'll have you know I'm a lot more observant now," he cried.

While Maika and Jayden continued to bicker together I turned my head and looked at Beth. She gave me one of her knowing little smirks. I took all of my self control to not kiss her right here and there.

She slipped her hand into mine, her fingers interlacing with my own.

She gave my hand a squeeze and I gave a squeeze back. She turned her gaze, looking in front again, a smile still lingering on her lips.

I brought her hand up to my mouth and kissed her knuckles. The two love birds in front didn't see anything.

I dropped our hands on the seat between us.

The dusk was smiling down at us as we drove on the quiet streets.

Her hand in mine, I was home.

THE END

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A/N: I can't believe I finally got to write those two last words. Like literally. I've been waiting for this day for a while.

I'm sorry for keeping you guys waiting too.

I have a few things to say. I want you guys to know how I got here, and what went on in my mind as I wrote this story and how I came to this ending. So. At first I had a plan. Something like with "I Sold.." and this plan... was to kill Lilibeth. Car accident. Tear-jerking speech at a funeral. People sad. Last chapter was always supposed to be a big ol' cliffhanger. A car accident because I've got a Jayden in a car so I can't help myself. That was set. But the epilogue.. Beth dying, that changed. Because I had another idea. I thought, okay, this time, a wedding. I'll make people believe it's a funeral. Freak you guys out like I Sold. Maika and Jayden get married. Maika's pregnant. But then, I thought of something else. Something sad again. Blake was in the car. Blake was driving. They have an accident. Blake dies. Finally. But I thought about the death threats and thought, okay, maybe something else. Maika's pregnant, Jayden dies later on. People cry. Boom.

I started to write all these versions. I thought, I can't pick. I don't know what I want. So, I'll let you guys pick. I'll write all these alternate endings. I'll pick a title for each and then I'll let you guys vote. The title with the most votes means you guys will pick the ending. So technically, I'm not entirely at fault if anyone dies.

I like this. This amuses me. I want to do this.

But then, one night, I'm writing a chapter of Spawns. I think about how much I like Nikki and Beth. I'm thinking about Beth and Cole, and a future together. I see a scene in my head. Beth is in her tiny apartment with Nikki in Berlin. Someone knocks at her door. It's Cole. She jumps in his arms. He's there for a week. Nikki makes jokes about how single she is while looking at their antics. I see Beth going to class while Cole sleeps in. I see them meeting up in a café between two of her classes. I see them going out with Beth's friends.

I see her smiling at him and him smiling back. I see them happy.

It's not the first time he does this. I see her calling him about an audition. She's stressed. He flies to Europe and meets her there. She doesn't get the part. She's sad but he's there. She gets another audition another time. Cole travels again. She gets the part. She's happy and he's there.

No one knows except Nikki.

I like this. I like these little scenes. I write them down. I love them. I love Cole and Beth older, wiser, more grounded. They make sense.

I'm still writing the Spawns. They're still kids for you guys, but suddenly for me, they're these adults with beautiful lives.

I can't kill any of them anymore. I can't leave this to chance. I can't let you guys pick an ending, because suddenly I know how it ends. It's years later after these scenes. Beth is in her twenties. Cole is done with school and has a stable job and an apartment. No one knows about them, or at least, they pretend they don't know to give them their space. Beth walks up to him, pressed her chin against his arm and looks up at him. She loves him and he loves her.

So, I write that ending.

But I don't know where I end it. How do I end this?

It's started in a car, so I think, okay, gotta end it in a car.

I re-read Victor Hugo's poem Genesis of Butterfly again. I was reading it when I started to write the story. Dawn is smiling at us. But that's a beginning. This is an end.

And now I know how it ends.

I hope you guys weren't disappointed. I hope this lived up to your expectations and that this ending was worth all your waiting.

And I also hope you guys realized that this is not completely an ending. Because for a little while, in my head, Cole and Beth were together in Berlin.

And you guys should get to read that.

Thank you so much again for everything. Thanks for your patience, thanks for your kind comments, thanks for putting up with me. I truly have the best readers ever.

I'm not making promises. I'm not giving time tables. Yes, I want to publish things, yes I want to upload other stories, but I don't know if or when that'll happen.

Well, this is getting a little too long. I'll stop ranting now.

Thank you again. I hope this isn't a goodbye, but just a see you later. 

I love you guys! <3